January 01, 2013

Apple Granted a Patent for the Original iPad & Smart Cover

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of thirty-two newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today including four design patents. The first two key patents that instantly stood out this morning were the ones for the original iPad and Smart Cover for the iPad 2. When designing the original iPad, Apple wanted to avoid the design flaws that were commonly associated with past attempts at a tablet PC. Apple didn't want users to see undesirable seams and gaps or the use of any kind of screw, bolt or rivet to mar the design. They also chose aluminum so that it would better work with wireless antennas. For those wanting to further explore Apple's patent, you'll find that the detailing throughout their patent is quite extensive. Whether this particular iPad patent will actually carry any value in their ongoing patent war with Samsung-Google is unknown at this time. The second noteworthy granted patent of the day goes to Apple's Smart Cover. It's Apple's fifth granted patent on this technology this year alone.

Apple receives a Granted Patent for the Original iPad

Apple credits John Ternus, Stephen McClure, Joshua Banko and Ming Yu as the inventors of this patent which was originally filed in 2010 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office. To review Apple's patent with its twelve claims, see granted patent 8,345, 410.

Apple receives their Fifth Granted Patent for their iPad Smart Cover

Apple has received their fifth Granted Patent for the iPad's Smart Cover in the last year. The other granted patents were issued in March, August, September and October.

Readers should be aware that every Tuesday the US Patent and Trademark Office publish Apple's Granted Patents. Granted patents are approved patent applications that Apple applied for months or even years ago. In the vast majority of cases, "granted patents" aren't covering any new kind of technology on the day the patent is being granted. New Apple technologies are generally revealed on Thursdays by the US Patent Office in the form of published patent applications. Some Mac sites confuse this process by making claims and presenting bylines on Tuesday that insinuate that Apple has just revealed a new technology or process. In 99% of cases, this is simply untrue and readers should be made aware of this fact. Known exceptions would include patents that were recently acquired by Apple or a domestic and/or foreign patent application that Apple had never presented in the US before under its own brand name.

NOTICE: Patently Apple presents only a brief summary of granted patents with associated graphics for journalistic news purposes as each Granted Patent is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any Granted Patent should be read in its entirety for full details. About Comments: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit comments.